Undercover Male
by Ryuuko1
Summary: partially inspired by the fact that Kyuuzou was originally going to be a woman and the episode where heihachi, gorobei and rikichi crossdress. What happens if only a woman can complete the mission...but none have? It's up to Kyuuzou to accomplish this p


Author: some explanation first. 1) samurai 7 doth not belong to me. 2) I'm building this story off the scenario that was first introduced in Death Was Only The Beginning. In this fic Kyuuzou should be about...17. In this Kyuuzou is part of an assassin clan. Writer's license...

Everyone was mildly surprised by the lack of response on Kyuuzou's part. Every one of them had declined before since it was an affront to their masculinity...as well as the fact that none of them could pull it off. But here was a man who seemed to be seriously considering it.

"I'll do it."

Kyuuzou ignored the stares as he stood, and he gave a wry, small smile.

"It'll be hard to hide the swords, though."

As he closed the door behind him, the others looked at their leader, who appeared thoughtful.

"He took it because it's a challenge. He's been bored of late, so this presents a unique challenge. It will test his skills in a new way."

He thought for a moment later, before turning to the other men. "He will need your help for the initial step. Listen to him. I don't care how much younger he is," he said in a clipped tone, quelling the objections that were beginning to surface over that remark. "That is all."

He smiled wryly at himself, thinking over the mission that he had accepted.

_There was a man rather high up in army rank, and he was close to being almost everyone's enemy. However, he did not get to his position simply by luck. He was skilled, and every assassination attempt before had been unsuccessful. There was, however, one chink in his armor. He was known to be a womanizer, and there were rumors of him having something almost akin to a harem. No woman assassins had been successful--he seemed almost able to detect them before they even had a chance to maneuver close to him. People were running out of ideas. His assassin clan had been approached because they were known for their original ways of looking at problems. The leader had indeed come up with a plan that was different, but most of his men shied away from it; what self-respecting man would cross-dress simply to achieve a mission? However, it appeared he had known Kyuuzou would take the job, both out of curiosity and the challenge. He was also the most feminine looking male assassin that they had. Kyuuzou had accepted because it would be a different test of his skills. The mission was simply to kill the target, but they had been given a suitably long range of time to do it in, so that it would even be feasible to attempt the assassination. So, the challenge Kyuuzou faced was how to act and look like a woman. He would never speak, but that could be used to his advantage anyway._

So, he had begun to make preparations. First, however, was to learn the movements and mannerisms of women. Kyuuzou put on his most mundane clothing, which allowed him to blend in with the general public, and walked around the city, observing how the women interacted with the men, with each other, how they walked, their gestures, and their expressions. By the time he returned to HQ, his head was spinning with information. He ignored everyone and everything around him as he walked down the corridors, and found his way out to the practice area. There he sat down with his sword leaning on his shoulder, and he closed his eyes, letting the clear ringing of swords striking each other calm him,allowing him to file the information away. Most of these things he had seen from afar, though, or had caught small snippets as he had passed close to women. He needed to see these things close up, but he had no social skills and, truthfully, wanted none. As he pondered this, he also came to the realization that:

1) he would have to find a way to hide his swords,

2) he would have to make his face and hair appear more feminine, and

3) he would have to find suitable clothes.

He allowed himself a heavy sigh, and stood. where could he learn these things? It's not like a lot of the men here were married, and there were no female assassins in their group...wait.

'Our leader has a wife...' Kyuuzou thought to himself and stood. He would get her to help.


End file.
